


until the moment i reach you

by chancellorxofxtrash



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ghosts, M/M, Proceed with caution, Vector is being Vector, or something like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:53:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25627792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chancellorxofxtrash/pseuds/chancellorxofxtrash
Summary: Vector did not know what they were - neither did the others.But they were there, restricted in the house, and the best thing they could do, was to try to push their boundaries.And maybe wait for someone to show up.
Relationships: Tsukumo Yuuma/Vector
Comments: 12
Kudos: 27





	until the moment i reach you

**Author's Note:**

> First of all - this is part of "Intristically No Good: A Vector Zine". You can reach the zine digitally for free here, to check out all the cool artwork that is in it!
> 
> https://twitter.com/YGOVectorZine/status/1288985005667082240
> 
> Second of all: this was edited by InsertImaginativeNameHere, love ya Jamie

Vector liked the rooftop.

The attic, he was not a fan of. It was a big place, plenty of things to meddle with and bother, but also the attic was the first thing he had seen.

Well, the first thing he remembered seeing.

If there was anything before that, he didn’t remember.

There was a trapdoor - and his fingers wrapped around it, pulled it open - there was a ladder leading down.

He tried to climb down, but he couldn’t - he felt like his foot got stuck, like he had no way of stepping on the ladder.

Tried to jump.

Same result.

He hurried to the single window that the attic had, and forced the window open, looking up at the night sky.

Same issue trying to climb out - it was hard to describe. It was like trying to advance in water, as if the air was resisting his movements.

There was no way out.

Not the door. Not the window.

Vector screamed, trying to jump at the window.

To the trapdoor.

Nothing.

He grabbed something, anything - it was a lamp, and he threw it---

And it fell down the trapdoor and shattered.

“Someone there?”

A voice.

A voice from downstairs.

Vector crawled towards the opening, looking down, and his eyes met with a pair of grey eyes covered by glasses.

“You can’t get out yet,” the man - the  _ nerd,  _ more like, judging from his looks, - told him. “You have to slowly practice.”

“Why?”

“Because this is the nature of our existence.”

~*~

It was hard figuring out how big the building even was, or how many of them were there. Durbe - the one who talked to him mentioned he had seen a couple others, and heard others, but he couldn’t leave the corridor and the room he first woke up to begin with. He said he was sure the layout was even changing sometimes.

“Some days there are five doors. Sometimes there are six. Sometimes the trapdoor up to the attic is open and sometimes it’s closed.”

“I don’t close it.”

“It doesn’t look like it.”

Weird.

But certainly explained why Durbe was not around all the time.

Not that he missed him. Durbe was no fun at all, and Vector noticed that instantly.

Eventually Vector managed to push himself up and peek out the window - the house was in a forest - or at least he could see many trees from the window.

Sometimes he heard noises from all around the house.

Eventually, slowly, one by one, he managed to figure out the others.

~*~

Durbe’s base seemed to be a study of sorts - not a lot of books, but a lot more plans, as he explained it to Vector. Maps of places and countries he had no idea how he knew.

Not that either of them seemed to know where they were.

Or…

....

Anyway.

There were two who seemed to be wildly roaming the corridors, and once got into Durbe’s corridor (at least Durbe seemed to consider it his own corridor), they caused not little ruckus - their names were Alit and Gilag, and seemed to have woken up close to each other, and seemed like extremely good in navigating the house very quickly, so Durbe got them to try to get a plan for the layout.

Which they compiled, not that it seemed to help much.

Two-storey house, plus Vector’s attic. There seemed to be a big open area in the middle - a small yard and an empty swimming pool.

But they couldn’t figure out the number of rooms.

Mizael… Mizael did not show up often, and seemed to not have much of a corporeal form. Occasionally showed up, marking on his face, blond hair blowing even if there wasn’t any wind, and he seemed almost see-through. He was not able to affect the area around him, but in exchange…

“It’s not that the house is changing,” his voice was annoyed, and weirdly echoey, as Vector leaned by the ladder he could  _ almost  _ completely climb down from by this point. “But your perception of the house is not solid yet.”

“Well but in exchange  _ we _ are solid, so you know, I think we won this one,” Vector smirked, and Mizael frowned.

“If you want to always wander around, be my guest. I prefer knowing where I am.”

“Do you? Would you enlighten us? If you are smart, o genius one?”

Mizael darted forward, his clawed hand reaching towards Vector - and passing right through him, as Vector’s grin widened.

“My point exactly.”

And of course there were the twins.

~*~

Merag was apparently no-nonsense, and Vector never saw her - she was apparently on the other half of the house, patrolling, trying to figure things out herself. Nasch, on the other hand was roaming the half where Vector was, and as soon as Nasch showed up for the first time, Vector decided he was going to make Nasch’s life hell.

He had no particular reason to do so, but as soon as Nasch showed up, there was this instinctive annoyance inside his soul. And as soon as Nasch opened his mouth, that annoyance turned into… well, not hatred. But definitely even bigger annoyance.

“It’s better that the two of us figure out one half of the building each, and talk about it periodically in the middle,” Nasch said dismissively. “That way we can focus on a smaller area in a more thorough way.”

“And why does that matter anyway exactly?”

Vector was on the corridor itself now, and day by day, he could move a bit and bit further and further away from the attic itself, but not into any other rooms yet.

“It is our place, our home, it seems like. We need to know it.”

“Do you think this abandoned mess of a house is our home?”

“Do you remember any other home, Vector?”

Silence. Vector scoffed and turned his head away.

“Exactly. Stay out of my way while I am doing something useful.”

Yeah.

Vector decided he hated Nasch.

~*~

They did not remember after all.

He had no idea who he was - he remembered his name being Vector, but if they were somewhere before this house, he could not recall.

None of the others did either - but as soon as Nasch made his way to them, Durbe followed him around like a lost puppy, working with him, trying to gather clues about their existence. Alit and Gilag also soon followed upon Nasch’s words, and even Mizael seemed to show himself more, working together.

Maybe the blondie was not as aloof as he initially seemed.

Vector for himself tried to climb out to the roof instead, because Nasch was annoying.

And then one day…

One day.

One day, two kids arrived.

A boy and a girl.

Twins? Seemed like twins.

The boy kind of reminded Vector of Nasch, with all his scowling and all, but it was the girl who looked up at the roof, and seemed surprised, before shaking herself.

“What?” The boy asked, annoyed.

“It seemed like there was someone on the roof.”

“What? Are you gonna say this place is haunted?” the boy scoffed. “Afraid, Rio?”

“Shut up, Ryouga!” the girl snapped, and started walking forward. “Let’s go inside, nerd.”

Two conclusions came out of that day, of the twins stepping through the doorstep.

One. They were not always visible.

Two.

Well.

Ryouga and Rio never left the house.

It was hard to tell what happened. They never came up to the second floor, so Vector never could meet them.

And the twins did walk away.

But they were not Ryouga and Rio anymore.

And Nasch and Merag were both gone after that.

~*~

Durbe could not tell Vector what happened. If anything, he seemed even more confused about it.

And it annoyed Vector so much.

Nasch was gone, and so was Merag, and the twins who arrived were not themselves by the point they left.

“Hey, Durbe---”

“Stop.”

“But you know what they have done. You know. They---”

“Don’t say it.”

“You know! He was all high and mighty abo---”

“I said stop!”

“Nope! You know what they did! He was all  _ oh let’s know where we are  _ but in the end they just---”

“Vecto---”

“They were just kids! Normal simple kids and the--”

Vector flew through the corridor, but it was not Durbe who had enough of his talking.

It was Mizael, kneeling over Vector, hands around his neck, and Vector  _ laughed. _

“Look at you! You are actually more tangible now! Changed your mind huhhh?”

“Don’t talk about Nasch like that, you--”

“Or else what?” Vector smirked, tilting his head backwards a little. “We can’t die. You can’t kill me. We are most likely---”

“Shut up!”

“Oh, try to  _ make me.  _ You know it’s true. You know it! We are most likely all dead.”

~*~

That explained everything, didn’t it?

Them being stuck in this house. Sometimes not even being seen properly.

Mizael not being corporeal, and barely being able to interact with their surroundings.

Gilag and Alit got out to the roof, and jumped down into the empty swimming pool, and neither of them got hurt.

It explained it.

“We might not be--- It’s possible we aren’t--”

“Oh? Do you have any other explanation?”

Durbe looked annoyed, as he looked up the trapdoor leading up to the attic.

The attic was still Vector’s place. None of them could get inside, besides Mizael, but he usually refused to interact with Vector any way whatsoever especially after their last confrontation, so he still had the attic for himself.

“We might be something… else.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know!” Durbe snapped. “I don’t know what kind of beings exist, but being ghosts is just as likely as being… don’t know. Anything else! We are surely not simple mortal humans, so we could be anything else!”

“What do you mean? Demons? Aliens? Alien demons?”

“I’m not sure those exist.”

“A lot of people would say ghosts don’t exist either so does it matter?” Vector grinned. “But in the end, does it really matter what we are? We are stuck here, we are stuck with each other. Sometimes people can’t see us, and some of us can’t interact with our surroundings well. And Nasch and Merag they---”

“Don’t say it!”

“You know exactly what they had done,” Vector tilted his head back with a grin. “I know you hate imagining your precious Nasch doing something like that, but he did, and his twin did as well. They went ahead and did it.”

Durbe was silent for a few moments.

“I’m sure that it was not their intention.”

Vector laughed out loud, throwing his head back.

“Really? Is that what you gonna say? Precious little Nasch did not mean it, promise!”

“Listen to me,” Durbe’s voice was desperate. “We had no idea we could even… that it’s something we could do! It might have been an honest mistake.”

“Oh yes. I’m real sure that it’s gonna be something that makes those twins feel better. If they are even still there at all. Maybe they are d--”

“Don’t!”

“What?” Vector tilted his head with a grin, his eyes shining with a manic light. “They are probably  _ dead,  _ or their consciousness being pushed down, and would that be better? Would it? Besides they  _ left.  _ The twins saw their chance and  _ bolted  _ and left us here to  _ rot,  _ left  _ you _ here to rot, how does that feel, Durbe?”

Durbe tried to lash forward, one foot on the ladder, reaching up, but Vector just leaned backwards, and didn’t stop grinning, while Durbe was almost snarling at him.

“Touched a nerve, Durbe?”

“...you better not get in my reach, Vector.”

Vector shrugged.

“Not that you could do  _ anything  _ to me.”

~*~

Durbe really avoided him afterwards, which meant Vector was free to push his own boundaries - he preferred to walk around on the roof, actually. He could glance down occasionally in the middle open area, and through it, the windows, and where the others were. Watching without being watched. That was fun.

He also got a vague understanding of the size of the house - somewhat. Hard to pinpoint what they perceived correctly, after all.

Was their perception messy, or was the house warping around them?

Were they ghosts who perished here? If so, was it coincidental, or did the house kill them?

Or were they integral parts of the house, a manifestation of its will, almost as much as the appearing and disappearing rooms all around?

Vector decided not to push these questions anymore, and instead looked outwards - they were indeed in a forest, and in the distance he could see tall buildings of a city glinting.

He wondered what life was like.

And then the kid arrived for the first time.

~*~

The kid was about the age of the twins who came and allowed Nasch and Merag to leave. His spiky hair sticking everywhere, clutching a pendant in his neck, eyes full of wonder, and he ran into the building without fear, and with yelling a phrase that quite frankly, sounded nonsensical to Vector’s ears.

He easily found his way to the empty swimming pool, and Vector was sitting on the side of the roof, looking down.

“Like this house?”

Part of him did not expect for the kid to hear his words.

And yet the kid perked up, looked up, and there was a smile on his face.

“Yup! It’s super cool. Shark and his sister mentioned this being here, so I wanted to check it out!”

Shark and his sister…

“Twins?”

“Yup!” The kid nodded. “They are super cool, but then called me stupid for wanting to come here.”

They did, huh?

“So why did you come?”

“Curiosity! And to see if it’s really haunted. Hey, are you a ghost?”

Vector’s grin widened.

“Me? You think I’m one?”

“Dunno, that’s why I ask. Why would you be here otherwise?”

“Oh you know. Maybe same reason as you. Having some fun, you see.”

The kid tilted his head to the side.

“Fun?”

“Yup. Hey kid, wanna play hide and seek?”

“You bet!”

~*~

The kid’s name was Yuma, and he was terrible at hide and seek, but very enthusiastic. Did not help that Vector himself was not very good at it either - with limited places he could go, and the house constantly shifting, it was easy to run out of options.

If the house changed for Yuma as well, he did not notice.

So all in all, if Vector wanted to be honest, both of them were terrible at this.

Not that it stopped them.

Then it slowly got darker, and Yuma looked outside.

“Ah… I should hurry home. But maybe we can meet here some other time! I’ll come back as soon as I can. Will you be here?”

And Vector grinned.

“You bet.”

~*~

He did not really expect Yuma to come back, but he did. And they played again, and then Yuma left again, and came back again, and Vector found himself waiting for Yuma to come back, and deliberately pushing himself to be able to go into other rooms.

“What are you planning?”

It was Mizael who asked that - once Nasch was gone, he was back to his aloof ways, barely seen, even less so than usual.

“Me? Nothing. I’m just happy to have some company, while all of you avoid me.”

Mizael’s eyes narrowed.

“I don’t trust you.”

“You wound me. And here I thought we were best buddies.”

He could have told Mizael and the others.

He could have.

But he did not.

But he was pretty sure  _ Shark and his sister  _ were the same set of twins whose skins Nasch and Merag walked out in.

~*~

It was very easy to get Yuma to talk about his friends back in the city - his childhood best friend, the small circle of friends he gathered.

And the twins.

“Have you met them? When they were here?”

“No,” Vector replied, truthfully. “Why? Did they say anything? Did they change maybe?”

He said the last line in a teasing tone, prompting Yuma to playfully shove him.

“Of course not! Nothing like that! Shark is… still Shark. Cool, strong, kind of rude but he isn’t that bad. Pretends not to care, when he actually does.”

Huh.

He was sure… Vector was pretty sure…

Anyway.

Couldn’t waste his thoughts on Nasch-Shark-whoever now.

He had Yuma to play hide and seek with.

By the time Yuma left that day, Vector had a pretty good grasp on the upper floor of the building, but couldn’t walk downstairs yet - just a few steps down the stairs was the furthest he could go.

“Hey, Yuma!”

He called after him suddenly, and Yuma stopped at the bottom of the stairs - so close and yet so far, eyes wide and honest, a small smile on his face.

“Tell Shark that Vector said hi.”

“Huh? I thought you said you didn’t meet him when he came over.”

“Yup,” Vector nodded with a grin. “I just think it would be funny to confuse him a bit.”

~*~

Predictably, the next day, the boy - Ryouga-Shark-Nasch-whatever showed up, eyes on fire.

“Vector! Vector you son of a bitch, what are you planning?!”

He had a physical body now, with no restrictions whatsoever, and he could easily get up to Vector’s attic, and out to the roof, where Vector was just hanging out, waiting for him while hanging down his feet.

“Oh hello, there.  _ Nasch. _ ”

Nasch scowled standing over Vector, looking down at him with anger.

“You did not answer. What are you planning?”

“Me? I would love to move more around the house. Obviously. I’m getting better at it. Yuma can’t find me that easy anymore.”

“Stay away from Yuma.”

“Me? He is the one who is coming over to meet me over and over again.”

“I swear if you--”

“Then what?”

Vector interrupted him, before standing up, so he could face Nasch.

“Afraid I would do the same to him that you did to this poor kid? You and Merag both.”

There were many different emotions running through Nasch’s - the kid’s face.

“...you have no idea what are you talking about.”

“Oh I do. You possessed a kid. I wonder… does it make you mortal?”

He moved quickly, grabbing the collars of Nasch’s jacket, pushing him backwards - Nasch lost his balance, desperately clinging to Vector’s shoulders, as Vector held him over the edge of the roof.

“What are you doing?! Let me go!”

“Oh, my my. Are you sure you want me to do that, Nasch?” Vector’s grin grew wider. “You might be able to drag me down with you but I am sure  _ I  _ would get out unscatched. Hey Nasch, do you think you would end up stuck back here, with the kid’s body broken down there?”

Nasch’s eyes widened, his fingers gripping Vector so strong it was  _ almost  _ painful, and Vector just held him there, because it was a  _ feeling,  _ a faint memory of  _ pain  _ that he… he was sure he knew once but he almost forgot, so he held Nasch over the edge just a bit longer, just a bit…

And then yanked Nasch back, making both of them fall on the roof instead, and Nasch’s fingers wrapped around Vector’s throat, straddling his chest, and Vector  _ laughed. _

“You can’t kill me like this, Nasch. By all odds, we are all already dead, aren’t we?”

“If you won’t leave Yuma alone, I  _ will  _ find a way. And that is a promise.”

And with that, he let Vector go, and climbed down from the roof.

He had no idea if he talked with Durbe or the others on his way out.

And he did not care.

~*~

Evidently Yuma himself did not care for Shark-Nasch’s obvious disapproval of him visiting the house either. Seeing as he did come back a week after Nasch’s visit.

“Shark was very freaked out,” Yuma’s voice was quiet as he looked down at his feet. “...Vector did you meet him when he was here?”

“I told you I did not,” Vector shrugged. “I saw him and his sister arrive but I did not speak with them. I was curious whether they met the others, and they mentioned me, though.”

“Others?” Yuma perked up, and Vector shrugged again. “They don’t like me much. They will probably not come out if you hang out with me. And if you meet them you might not want to hang out with me anymore.”

“Nothing could make me not want to hang out with you,” Yuma said stubbornly. “How about we go and play instead?”

So they did.

And when Yuma left, he stopped at the bottom of the stairs again.

“Vector… are you a ghost?”

Vector smiled a little to himself.

“Who knows?”

~*~

Part of him was aware he should have been more unsure about Yuma coming back after that - most people would not want to come back.

But Vector knew Yuma was not most people.

He kept coming back, playing with Vector, all kinds of different games. Sometimes brought handheld video games, sometimes they played with playing cards.

If the others tried to talk with Yuma, Yuma never said.

Vector found himself wishing he would never leave.

“Hey, Yuma?”

“Yes?”

“Wanna play something else?”

“What are you thinking of?”

“Tag.”

Yuma tilted his head a little, and then smiled.

“Sure! I’m gonna be It first.”

Turns out Yuma figured out he could not go into certain places, and it was not exactly that hard for him to push Vector into a corner - and so after that it was Vector’s turn.

Which meant Yuma could use the same knowledge to his advantage, and laughed, and his laughter sent a warmth into Vector’s chest, even though he was loudly complaining about how unfair this whole thing was.

And on and on, and on.

They lost track of time.

Until Vector was It, and managed to push Yuma up to the attic - that was a good place.

He knew the attic better than anything else there was nowhere to go once Vector was blocking the trapdoor.

Well.

Nowhere but the window.

And of  _ course  _ Yuma would climb out.

And of course Vector would go after him.

And Yuma would laugh, and Vector would reach his hand out------

\---

\-----

\--------

Yuma’s hand, extended.

His eyes widened, a surprised expression on his face.

_ Slipping feet, or a strong hand on his chest, he wasn’t sure, he did not know, he tried to catch him or did he--- _

And Yuma grew distant, as his body landed in the empty swimming pool.

Silence.

There were no movements, Vector’s hand still extended, and there was  _ something growing  _ in the swimming pool, dark and shiny and  _ red. _

Vector’s hand fell.

Silence.

He walked to the edge of the roof  _ the tiles kind of slippery, right? Vector himself never slipped but--- _

He sat down.

And waited.

He was vaguely aware of Nasch’s threat in the back of his mind, and how---

But he pushed it away.

This way they will know, right?

Because if they were all ghosts who died here, then---

Yes.

That has to be the answer, right?

That explained everything.

Which meant he just had to wait for Yuma to show up.

He would probably show up around the swimming pool, and won’t really be able to go anywhere else.

Yes, but that’s good. Vector could go on the roof and talk like that. Yuma would know it was an accident, so it would all be fine.

He just had to wait.

That’s all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out the rest of the zine! Here is the link again:
> 
> https://twitter.com/YGOVectorZine/status/1288985005667082240


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